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Dabi was a liar.
“You’re lying,” Toga accused, after you had walked out of the room crying.
“I’m not,” he responded. But I am. I’m lying.
Dabi had made up his mind about his life a long time ago. There was no room for this. No room for you. Not in that capacity. He was to die, and to die taking down as much of this hero society as he could. As much of his father as he could. It was his fate, and that fate did not include soft shit like romance and connection and you.
But he’d be lying if he said the look on your face when he rejected you didn’t make his heart twist in his chest. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about it, late at night with his own thoughts. How it’d be if he could be with you. He could, but he wouldn’t. He had a goal. Happiness wasn’t part of it. Friendship wasn’t part of it. Anyone getting too close, opening up to anyone would cause Dabi to stray. That couldn’t happen. You couldn’t happen.
So Dabi let you cry. He let you believe that your feelings were one sided. Liar. He let everyone think he was unshaken by Twice’s death. That seeing his comrade (friend) killed in front of him didn’t bother him. Dabi let them all think he didn’t care. It was a means to an end. It wouldn’t matter when he was dead. A lie. He wasn’t scared to die. He wasn’t scared to leave you and the League without him in the world. He wasn’t scared that his death would be meaningless. Lies. This was Dabi’s fate. He could not step from it. It was set in stone. Unbreakable fate. More lies. He wasn’t scared you wouldn’t cry over his death. He wasn’t scared that you might not miss him. He wasn’t scared that he had thrown away a chance at something good, something happy, with you. He wasn’t. He couldn’t be. A liar, to himself, to everyone. All lies.